Roots
by SkyGem
Summary: They're called 3E, and they're Vongola the Tenth's personal assassination squad. Even four generations down the road, he is the only one that has their eternal loyalty. And when the Vongola begins to stray, it is their job to bring it back to its roots.
1. Departure

Silence hung in the 3E mansion.

It was an eerie kind of quiet.

A waiting kind of quiet.

A watching kind of quiet.

The air was thick with the taste of abandonment, bitter and ashy.

There was a single soul in this empty shell, and he sat so still, he could just as easily be another piece of furniture.

He sat in perfect darkness, staring up into painted brown eyes he couldn't see, but knew were there. Just as surely as he knew his own reflection.

Sitting here, darkness wrapped around him like a shawl, the boy fought the terrible sense of finality that threatened to suffocate him.

He had sat in this very spot a million times before in his life, staring up at the portrait of the man he had pledged his eternal loyalty to.

Those soft brown eyes, like willow bark - tough and weathered, centuries older than they should be, but soft and smoothe inside, welcoming.

Suddenly, the whisper of footsteps across the carpeted floor.

Then, a hand on his shoulder.

"Luca."

Luca didn't reply.

"We need to leave, kid."

Luca stayed still a moment longer, cementing this moment in his mind.

The last time he would see his boss's portrait, and he couldn't _actually_ see it in the darkness.

It was a cruel irony.

But the feeling was there. That feeling of peace and safety, of conversing with someone he knew would never judge him.

And finally, when he couldn't stall any more, he stood and followed his leader out of the portrait room.

Luca looked around as they walked through the halls in near silence, his eyes taking in the outlines of the furniture around him, sitting lonely and abandoned in their places.

All around him, he could see ghosts of a life he may very well never return to.

He could just imagine the kids running through the halls playing hide-and-seek, echoes of their laughter bouncing around in his head.

It was eerie, even for him, seeing everything left in their places, as if their owners coud return any second now.

But of course they wouldn't.

It grew much lighter when they reached the front of the mansion, with sunlight streaming in through the windows, the curtains still hanging open.

And as the front door swung shut behind them and Fiammetta locked up, Luca felt the last few strings attaching him to his old life snap, freeing him.

He'd let himself grieve as long as possible.

And now it was time to move on.

* * *

The day after their departure, the entire mafia world knew that Vongola the Fourteenth had been forsaken by his assassination squad, 3E.

Not that it had even truly been his in the first place.

Established by his great-great-grandfather, Vongola the Tenth, 3E was one of the Vongola's two elite assassination squads, along with the Varia.

After the Tenth's death, 3E had continued to uphold his values, and had continued to recruit.

As a result, 3E was a core force in the Vongola even now, four generations later, and every single one of its 25 members (give or take) were completely, unfalteringly loyal to Vongola the Tenth.

They were something of an anomaly in the mafia world - their loyalty to a dead man that none of them had met was stronger than most men who knew their bosses personally.

But at the same time, they were deeply respected.

Vongola the Tenth, also known as the second coming of Primo, had far surpassed his ancestor, and had taken his place as the most influential mafia Don in history.

The Rules he had put down in relation to human trafficking and experimentation had become a core part of the Code of Honour that all mafioso lived by.

Therefore, as the men and women who upheld the Tenth's beliefs, the members of 3E were greatly admired and were regarded by most in much the same way the Vindice had been regarded, once upon a time.

Thus, their withdrawal was a shocking political statement that alerted many to the fact that the Vongola may be straying once more to the bloody ways they'd practised before the time of the Tenth.

It was the first time in their history that this had happened, and already, the consequences of their decision were being seen.

Many of the Vongola's allies had turned their backs on the Family, and it was rumoured that even the Chiavarone, who had a long, friendly history with the Vongola, were starting to drift away.

Underneath all the uneasiness however, was an undercurrent of excitement.

Because 3E cutting off their ties with the Vongola meant that they were now, officially, hitmen for hire.

* * *

SkyGem: That's the end of this chapter! Hope you all enjoyed it! In case any of you were wondering, yes, this is an oc-centric fic, _**BUT**_, Tsuna and his guardians, and of course the lovely students of 3E, wil all be playing a very large part in it. So please stay tuned for the next chapter, yeah? Ciao!

P.S. WHOO! ONE FULL WEEK OF DAILY UPDATES HAVE PASSED. I'm so happy!


	2. The Welcome Home

_A deep, throaty chuckle was the first thing they heard, coupled with crinkly eyes and a face lit up with joy._

_Two men were sitting on a sofa - one of them was an older brunet, maybe late thirties, with messy brown locks and laugh lines softening his face. The other was a much younger man, in his late twenties, with bright blue hair and eyes to match._

_"You're kidding," gasped out the older man, who looked as if he were about to suffocate, he was laughing so hard._

_"I wish," replied the younger man, his pretty face twisted into a disgusted expression. "They were absolutely hideous. And not at all practical. Even the Varia's outfits don't look that ridiculous."_

_"Oh come on, they can't have been __**that**__ bad," replied his companion, trying to reign in his laughter._

_Wordlessly, the blue-haired man pulled a picture out of his wallet, handing it to the older man, who took one look, and burst out laughing again, bent almost double as he tried to take in breath._

_"Oh God," he gasped. "That's...that's even more flamboyant than Luss-nee!"_

_The two men on the couch laughed for a few seconds, before a third voice spoke up from behind the camera._

_"Boss, the camera's rolling."_

_And suddenly, it was as if a flip had been switched._

_The brunet blinked, and suddenly he was a different person._

_He straightened his back, his body language suddenly exuding absolute confidence, and most of the laughter drained from his face, leaving behind just enough to stop him looking too severe._

_But then he smiled a gentle smile, and he was almost back to the person who had been laughing on screen just seconds before._

_"Hello, students of class E-"_

_The blue-haired man nudged his arm._

_"They're not going to be students, boss," he snickered, and his boss' face reddened._

_Taking a deep breath, he tried again._

_"Hello, assassins of 3E. I'm Tsunayoshi Sawada, Vongola Decimo, and this is Nagisa Shiota, 3E's first boss. I don't know what's brought you here, but I just want you to know that you are always welcome here."_

_The blue-haired man, Nagisa, leaned forward._

_"This place will be your home until you can return to the Vongola - whether that's in a week, a decade, or a lifetime. Hopefully, by the time this base is needed, all the technology and everything in here will be horribly outdated. Which means you will need to be doing a lot of shopping."_

_And when Nagisa finished talking, Tsunayoshi picked up, the two of them continuing each other's thoughts perfectly, as if they had known each other forever._

_"We've left behind a lot of videos for you. Some of them are just plain silly, but others will help answer some questions you may have. Just remember, if anything ever comes up that you can't deal with by yourself, call the Foundation."_

_Nagisa nodded along. "From now on, the Foundation are going to be your greatest allies. You are fighting a war, and don't you forget about it. It's going to be difficult, but it will be worth it."_

_Tsuna nodded along, somber._

_Then, the smile was back on his face._

_"That's all we have for now. Go ahead and explore. But before you go, my dear 3E, I'd just like to say one thing._

_"Welcome home."_

* * *

Luca stood staring at the lush forest spread before him. The trees in this section were old and healthy, with thick brown trunks and gnarled bark. The undergrowth was lush, barely letting them see anything of the forest floor.

"How on Earth do we get in?" asked Gabrielle for possibly the twentieth time that day.

Luca and the rest of their seven person scouting team had long since given up trying to answer her, and were each sitting in their respective perches, trying to think of another way to find the entrance to the secret base.

They had arrived at the right coordinates three days before, and had been searching for the entrance since then.

It wasn't particularly crucial for them to find it on this particular day - their people already had places to stay; it wasn't like they were out in the cold.

But having a place to stay didn't mean having a home.

The assassins of 3E were wonderful at what they did, at taking on new roles and adopting them completely.

But the trade-off for that talent was that, once they were done their assignments, they often needed a very long resting period, where they could just close themselves off from the rest of the world, and just have some time to themselves, completely alone.

Which wasn't something they could do if they didn't feel utterly safe in their surroundings.

Some of their people had come back in the middle or near the end of hits, which meant that they were starting to get rather weary.

Taking a deep breath, Fiammetta spoke up from his resting spot, where he was leaning against a tree with a contemplative expression on his face.

"Okay let's sit down and talk this out. First of all, what kind of lock could they possibly have used that they were absolutely certain would still be effective centuries later?"

"Well, anything DNA based is definitely out of the question," started Gabrielle, deciding to go for process of elimination.

"And obviously they wouldn't have used a normal lock and key," piped up the youngest of their group, fourteen-year-old Kaoru.

"And it probably wouldn't be anything technology based," chimed in Maria from atop the tree branch she was sitting on.

"Because that leaves the risk of it becoming outdated and easily broken into," explained her fiance, Axel, from where he was standing on the ground, beneath her.

"So what else is left?" asked Felicia from where she had collapsed to the ground earlier from exhaustion.

"Flames," whispered Luca, and immediately, all heads whipped around to look at him. "That's the only possibility left, right? The entrance must respond to our flames. It's the only thing we can count on lasting indefinitely."

The seven scouts looked around at each other, eyes wide as they wondered just why they hadn't thought of this before.

Without needing to be told, they all left their perches to gather around their leader, Fiammetta, who was already standing with both his hands cupped together in front of him, a bright, pure rain flame burning steadily in them already.

Slowly, the others added their own flames to the mix - situations like these were why every 3E scout group had at least one person in them with all the flames.

Gabrielle held out her cloud flames.

Kaoru had his lightning.

Maria held out her storm.

Axel had his mist.

Felicia's sun wasn't too far behind.

And finally, Luca's own, beautiful sky flames burst into being.

Their flames danced and leapt higher and higher, reacting to each other, and for a few seconds, it was as if the whole forest fell silent, every living being in it holding its breath.

And then, with a deep, grating sound, a gaping chasm opened up in the ground not far from where the group was standing.

The seven assassins stared for a moment, shocked that their idea had actually worked, before stepping slowly forward with weapons raised, each of their nerve endings feeling like live wires.

But as they stepped hesitantly into the darkened hallway, a quiet whirring started up, and suddenly, a string of lights overhead turned on, leading deeper into the hallway.

Fiammetta and the others stopped, suspicious, but Luca felt himself stepping forward despite his mind screaming at him not to.

He was enchanted forward by a heady feeling coming from inside that base.

He had never been in there before, but there was a strong, reassuring feeling of _SafetyLoveProtectionSecurity__**HOME**_ coming from inside that made him think, with a pang of longing, about their HQ back in Italy.

* * *

_Tsuna smiled at the screen for a few more seconds before relaxing into the man he had been before, and asking the cameraman, "How was that, Karma?"_

_"Perfect, boss," replied an amused voice, to which Tsuna rolled his eyes._

_"How many times do I have to ask you guys to stop calling me that before you'll listen?" he almost whined._

_There was a deep, rumbling laugh from the person behind the camera, before he replied, "At least once more, boss."_

_Nagisa, getting up from where he had been sitting, approached the camera man, his shirt filling the whole screen for a second as he leaned over to, presumably, kiss the man behind the camera._

_"Stop teasing boss," he said with an amused voice, and Tsuna just rolled his eyes in the background, unable to keep the smile off his face._

_"Like you're one to talk, hypocrite," replied the cameraman's amused voice just before the screen cut to black._

* * *

SkyGem: That's it for this chapter! Wow, it actually ended up being a pretty good length, for once! Yay! I had lots of fun writing this; it was really sweet and fun, and the two parts at the beginning and end are from the same video, in case you guys didn't realize. I played around with time a bit in this chapter because I really liked this layout. Obviously, our boys 'n girls still haven't watched the video, as its inside the base - they'll get to see it a bit later. The videos left behind by Tsuna and his guardians and the original 3E are going to play a large role in this fic, and they won't always coincide with when Luca and Fia and the others watch the vids, kay? Anyways, that's it for now! Please do leave a review and let me know what you thought! Love you all lots! Night!


	3. Mini Mosca

_The screen flickered to life to show a most amusing scene._

_There was a brunet on the floor, struggling under the weight of the robot-thing sitting on top of him._

"_ESCAPE ATTEMPT IN PROGRESS!" the thing was blaring in a deafening, robotic voice. "ESCAPE ATTEMPT IN PROGRESS!"_

_The camera-person stood for a moment, watching the scene, before saying in a voice brimming with laughter, "Warning acknowledged, Mosca. Disengage."_

_The robot, Mosca, immediately quieted and stood up, freeing its captor, who then stood and turned to the camera._

_Pushing his disheveled brown hair out of his eyes, he made eye contact with the camera, and his face immediately flushed a bright pink._

"_C-Chrome!" choked out the twenty-year-old, lunging forward in an attempt to snatch the camera away and turn it off_

_Giggling in amusement, Chrome dodged out of his reach, the image shaking as she hopped back a few steps._

"_Say hi to the camera, boss!" she chimed as her friend made another desperate attempt to catch her._

_But he finally gave up when it became apparent he couldn't win, and slumped in defeat._

"_Why are you doing this?" he whined._

"_Because it's funny," was the reply._

_Tsuna just pouted and looked away, grumbling quietly to himself._

"_Why the hell did that **thing** listen to you but not to me?" he demanded finally, turning to glare at Mosca, which was standing to the side, motionless. "Last I checked, **I** was the Don of this family."_

_Another second of tinkling laughter, before Chrome replied, "Because Reborn had Spanner program him so that he would respond to any family member's voice **except **for yours, if he ever caught you trying to escape from your paperwork."_

"_Wha-!" spluttered Tsuna, looking indignant. "I was **not** trying to escape!" he insisted. "I was just going to the washroom!"_

"_Through the hallway window?" asked Chrome in a dry voice, sounding unimpressed._

_Tsuna looked away, pouting again._

* * *

Luca stared down at the robot standing in front of him like a guard.

It was a bulky thing, obviously built to be sturdy (and possibly to fight), and had two red sensors on its face, to imitate eyes.

It had three tubes of various sizes, where its mouth should have been, making it look almost as if it were wearing a gas mask, and Luca couldn't help but wonder, for a moment, as to their purposes. But then, his attention returned to the screen on its belly, which currently showed a countdown, with a little less than a minute left.

"Identify yourself," it repeated over and over, every few seconds, as the numbers steadily got closer to zero. Luca didn't know what exactly would happen at the end of the countdown, but he was sure it couldn't be anything good.

"Luca Shiota," he repeated again, and after a moment of silence, just like the last few times he had stated his name, the robot buzzed, then said, "Name not recognized. Name not recognized," before returning to its earlier mantra.

Letting out a frustrated growl, Luca tried another tactic.

"Assassin of 3E," he stated.

The robot paused, and Luca held his breath, hopeful.

Suddenly, the countdown halted, and the robot intoned, "Identify current leader."

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Luca replied, "Fiammetta Gregorio."

There was another pause, then the robot replied, "Accessing Vongola database. Please hold."

Feeling laughter bubble up inside him, Luca wondered if he had heard that properly. Whoever had programmed this thing, they sure did have a sense of humor.

Just as Luca was wondering if the robot would start playing music as well, it buzzed again, and said, "Database accessed. Identify yourself."

Groaning inwardly, Luca hoped that, since it now had an updated list of 3E members, his name would be recognized.

"Luca Shiota," he repeated for the nth time.

There was a pause, then the robot buzzed again (Luca was starting to think that maybe the buzz signaled a kind of "end process" message).

"Name and voice recognized. Bomb deactivated."

His suspicions about the countdown confirmed, Luca sighed in relief that he'd been able to give the right answers. Fia definitely would not have been happy to return with the rest of 3E, only to find that the one he'd left behind to keep an eye on things had somehow managed to blow up their base.

"Welcome to 3E's emergency underground base, Japan location," intoned the robot, dropping into a clumsy bow, hindered by its considerable bulk. "I am your housekeeper and assistant, Mini Mosca. Please indicate how you would like to be addressed, Mr. Luca Shiota."

"Just Luca is fine," he replied, intrigued. "Do you answer only to Mini Mosca? Or can I just call you Mosca?"

"I reply to both Mini Mosca and Mosca. Further nicknames I have been programmed to respond to by previous generation are: Minime, Mozzy, Momo, Shithead, Weirdo, and That Thing. Clear list?"

Luca couldn't help the snort of laughter that escaped him as Mosca read out its list of nicknames. As far as he knew, the only other people who had been in this base before them were select members of the tenth generation of Vongola, and the first generation of 3E.

He couldn't help but wonder who had come up with those nicknames, and he desperately wished there was a way he could find out.

Mosca stood motionless, evidently waiting for a reply from Luca, and once the young man was able to stop laughing, he replied, "Keep list."

Mosca buzzed.

"Understood."

Clearing his throat, Luca straightened up, and took a step forward, ready to start exploring the rest of the base, and start making it more homey for when the rest of the gang arrived.

Mosca immediately stepped out of the way, and followed after him like an eager puppy.

If Luca didn't know any better, he would have thought the poor thing seemed almost...lonely.

It was a machine though, and therefore didn't possess the sentience required to have human emotions.

* * *

_The video cut to another scene of an older, twenty-eight-year-old Tsuna, sitting at his desk in his office at the Vongola HQ, a room which hadn't changed much in the decades since._

_His head was down and he seemed to be doing paperwork._

_Mini Mosca stood beside his desk, as if standing guard._

_Which was exactly what it was doing._

_Chuckling, the camera-person called out, "Mosca, come here a sec!"_

_Mosca stared at Tsuna for a moment longer, before turning and approaching the camera._

_Tsuna looked up, his expression sulky. "What the hell? You've been here less than a month, and it listens to you without question. But when I'm stuck doing this thrice-damned paperwork, it won't even acknowledge my existence, unless it's knocking me to the ground for daring to get up from my desk?"_

_The camera-person chuckled, and the image shook a bit as he switched the camera to one hand in order to reach out and open the screen on Mosca's belly._

_Behind the screen was a built-in microwave, and the camera-person put his cup of tea inside to quickly warm it up._

"_Don't laugh Ryoma!" whined Tsuna from where he was sitting. "It's not FAIR!"_

_The camera-person laughed again, saying, "Well, it's not my fault that you're notorious for skipping out on paperwork every chance you get, boss."_

"_I do NOT!" insisted Tsuna indignantly, getting up and slamming a fist on the table._

_Immediately, Mosca's head snapped in his direction._

"_ESCAPE ATTEM-" it began._

"_HIIEEE!" shrieked Tsuna, immediately sitting back down in his chair and grabbing his pen,in order to avoid being squashed by the little robot and being embarrassed again._

_Ryoma burst into hysteric laughter at this, which earned him a murderous glare._

"_Ryoma Terasaka, the moment I finish this paperwork, you are **so DEAD**," vowed Tsuna._

"_Whatever you say, boss," replied Ryoma in an amused voice before the screen cut to black._

* * *

SkyGem: Hello my lovelies! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out! I promise I haven't forgotten about this fic! It's just that I've fallen into a rather nasty habit in the past few months. I guess it's just the laziness of summer getting to me. Not to worry though! The daily updates will be starting up again from today onwards!

Anyways, this chapter was lots of fun. We get a more lighthearted look into this world, and we get some insight as to why the underground base isn't in a state of disrepair yet. Poor little Mosca has been there all by himself for all this time, keeping the place tidy. I really enjoyed writing the characters' interactions with him, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as well! Please do leave a review and let me know what you thought! Ja ne!


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